Self-Affirmation and Documentation

Self-Affirmation: Voters in Self-Affirmation Neighborhood Councils did not have to show proof as a stakeholder, unless the Neighborhood Council was conducting an online election, in which case some type of photo identification was required.

Documentation: Voters in Documentation Neighborhood Councils had to provide two types of documentation in order to vote: 1) Photo Identification 2) Documentation that shows that you live, work, own, or have an ongoing and substantial participation. (In some cases, photo ID covered both requirements.)

Board Affirmations and Loss of Quorum

Board of Affirmation and Loss of Quorum: If a Neighborhood Council fails to register enough candidates to have a competitive race, i.e. there is only one (1) candidate for each of the open seats, the election is cancelled, and the candidates are seated by Board Affirmation. The candidates will be seated at the Neighborhood Council’s next regular meeting after the Final List of Certified Candidates has been released by the City Clerk. The outgoing board shall prepare an agenda where the first agenda item shall be the Board Affirmation by EmpowerLA, and the second agenda item shall be the election of the board Executive Officers if applicable. The candidates for the open board seats will be seated at the meeting by EmpowerLA. If there is not a regular meeting within thirty (30) days after the final verified candidate list has been released, then the outgoing board or EmpowerLA will hold a special meeting within fifteen (15) days after the release of the list instead to affirm the board. If there are not enough candidates to constitute a quorum of the Neighborhood Council board, then the Board Affirmation will also be cancelled, and the Department will apply the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners Loss of Quorum Policy to seat a new board.

Selection

The City Charter allows for Neighborhood Councils to elect or select their board members.

The BoardSelectionProcess does not have a secret ballot and is usually conducted in a town hall style setting where board members are selected by a public vote such as showing of voter hands or a printed ballot where the ballot is signed by the voter in public. EmpowerLA has provided a Selection Procedures Stipulation Worksheet to assist Neighborhood Councils with a selection process. If a Neighborhood Council wants one year terms for board members or wants more flexibility as to the day they want to hold a vote for the new board members, then they should use a Selection Process. Elections are only held during the even­numbered years so board terms have to be two or four years. The Department’s timeline for elections does not allow for as much flexibility for date selection since all of the Neighborhood Councils in a region must have their election on the same day. If a Neighborhood Council wants a different date than the election day chosen by the region, then they will need to go to a Selection Process

Vote By Mail

For an additional fee, a Neighborhood Council may decide to offer Vote-­by-­Mail to its stakeholders, but only if they have selected self­-affirmation as its method for establishing stakeholder status. If this is offered, all stakeholders are eligible to Vote-­by-­Mail. To learn more about Vote-By-Mail please go to the Election Manual page 25, xiv. Vote-By-Mail.